Players have faced taunts

MINNEAPOLIS — Racial epithets aren’t a thing of the past when it comes to baseball, as the incident Monday night in Boston with Baltimore outfielder Adam Jones illustrated.

A’s outfielder Khris Davis is familiar with racial taunts, including in Boston, he said. “We’ve all had our fair share,” Davis said when asked about what Jones endured at Fenway Park. “Do I have to specify? I don’t like thinking about that place.”

Davis said that he doesn’t have Twitter because he has been subjected to racial slurs on social media.

“It’s just a shame,” he said. “It’s 2017. We should be past that. That’s all I’ve got to say.”

Oakland center fielder Rajai Davis is also African American, but he said he is good at drowning out insults of every kind.

“I haven’t had any issues, but I’m very good at blocking things out,” he said. “I guess I learned from those who came before me, like Jackie (Robinson). We don’t even know the half of what he went through.”

A’s infielder Jed Lowrie spent the first four years of his career in Boston and he said he knew of past incidents of racial taunting in the city but said, “As a white man, I wasn’t subjected to it. I was aware of it because of the reputation, that’s it. I did not personally witness anything, but that’s just anecdotal. I’m not saying (racism) does or doesn’t exist at all in sports, and I’m certainly aware of the reputation for it there.

“It’s unfortunate that a guy like Adam Jones has to deal with something like that — a guy who has meant a lot to the game of baseball and Team USA.”